Montréal, October 23, 2014 – The Quebecoise judoka Catherine Beauchemin-Picard will leave the Junior World Championships in Miami with a bronze medal around her neck. She’s the only Canadian to have won a medal on Thursday.

Fighting in the under 57 kg class, the athlete from Longueuil lost in the semi-final against the Japanese Momo Tamaoki. She fought back in the bronze medal bout and won against the Netherlander Dewy Karthaus.

Earlier, she had won her first bout against the Pole Anna Borowska, followed by another victory against Nilufar Muhiddinova, from Turkmenistan. At the end of the preliminary round, the Quebecoise judoka also took down the Israeli Timma Nelson Levy.

“Catherine’s goal was to confirm the podium she had reached last year. She ends her junior years with a second international medal. She had a good day. We’re proud of her” said Jérémy LeBris, one of the coaches at the championships.

“She continues her journey towards the Olympic Games next week, at the Abou Dabi Grand Prix. Her next big goal is to win a medal during the next Senior World Championships, in August 2015” he added.

In the same category, the Ontarian Jessica Klimkait won her first bout by waza-ari against the Brazilian Tamires Silva before to lose by ippon against the French Amélie Guihur.

Brianna McCracken (under 52 kg), also from Ontario, lost her first match of the day against the Romanian Larisa Florian. The Canadian judoka lost by an ippon and a waza-ari.

In the under 66 kg category, Antoine Bouchard, from Saguenay, lost his second bout against the Uzbek Sukhrob Tursunov. Earlier, he had won against Lukas Reiter from Austria.

“I followed my race plan against Reiter to win the penalties,” Bouchard explained. “During my second bout, the Uzbek won by yuko. I thought I had scored near the end of the match but I wasn’t given any points. I couldn’t catch up. I had bad penalties at the wrong time and it affected my rhythm.”

“I’m disappointed, I was expecting at least a medal” said the one who won a gold medal at the Pan American Open in Miami in August and in San Salvador in June.

On Friday, Louis Krieber-Gagnon, Jonah Burt, Béatrice Valois-Fortier and Monika Burgess will be in action. The competition ends on Saturday.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada